So you’re shiny new camera has arrived. You’ve unpacked everything, charged and inserted the battery and memory card and attached the lens (hopefully to the front!). So what now? But maybe not. This is an expensive piece of kit and you want to make sure you’re doing everything right. If you’re struggling with these starter tasks then the absolute first thing you should be doing is reading the camera manual to at least get this far.
It sounds like an absolute obvious thing (and I admit that I hate reading manuals and intructions) but camera manuals are an absolute goldmine of information. How do I actually take my first picture? How do I view it when I’ve taken it? What do all the buttons mean? What do SOME of the buttons mean?
The first pass through the manual will be and absolute mind-mash and there will be plenty of (if not most) terms, processes and functions that you will have no clue about, even with the camera in your hands. You might be able to change the settings as the manual describes but you certainly won’t understand why you would need to and what effect they will all have on your finished picture.
Don’t worry. You are at the start of a very long journey of learning…perhaps one that won’t ever finish! Skim read it the first time perhaps. Make notes in it, highlight stuff, put some markers in there for quick reference. Make a list of things you want to understand first. Have some easy goals in mind though so here’s a starter checklist:
- Find your way around the basic controls of your camera
- Make sure you know how to make sure the camera is on (or off) fully auto mode
- Charging and inserting the battery
- Connecting the lens
- Inserting and formatting a memory card
- Turning it on!
- Make sure auto-focus is turned on
- How to focus using the shutter button (hint: half press it!)
- Take your first picture
- Working out how to review your first image
Sounds like a bit of an epic? Don’t worry it’s all totally achievable and fairly easy to get through with the help of the manual. For now, forget about everything else and get through that list. At that point, give yourself a pat on the back and take plenty more pictures to get the feel of the camera, how to hold it and get used to using it. Practice for a bit. You are well on the way of the start of your journey!